32 Quotes by M. John Harrison

Before I came to the city I cut off my hair. It was the first of many fatally symbolic gestures.

Outside, a dog sprawls among the empty tables, its body rocking with the evening heat. Someone has given it a hamburger which first it guards, then, eventually, eats. It’s some kind of winter dog, a malamute perhaps, a dog of marvellous subtle greys and whites. Also of transparent intelligence, and less transparent motive. The beauty of an animal like this appears to fix it in our expectations. But while its beauty says one thing, its heart may say another.

I think it’s undignified to read for the purposes of escape. After you grow up, you should start reading for other purposes.

The first time we spoke, Mr. Ambraysas told me, ‘Identity is not negotiable. An identity you have achieved by agreement is always a prison.

Two men deep in conversation could be seen disappearing along the opposite pavement towards Mortlake, their shadows cast huge and filmily onto the brewery walls by the kind of late-night city light that, while failing to relieve the darkness in any way, seems to pour in from every direction at once. Otherwise Wharf Terrace presented itself with only minute differences from his usual point of view. He had expected more.